Bladderhead is slow to respond to email
because of her easily-broken wrist. But if you insist, she can be
reached here.

Eliza (Bladderhead's other
adopted sister)
and Bladderhead share a
quiet moment just before Bladderhead gushes all over her shirt.
Bladderhead has no sphincter and, therefore, no control over when she
wets. Bummer!

Build
a Bladderhead in NINE (not very hard but time-consuming) STEPS!

Materials:
You're going to need:

1.
a 5"
Styrofoam ball

2.
Many packages of green pipecleaners (preferably dark green)

3.
48 inches or so of thick wire

4.
a wirecutter

5.
ten to twelve tissues

6.
tape

7.
a square of tan clay

8.
a bit of green clay

9.
paper

10.
a permanent marker

11.
a good pair of scissors

12.
A bag (tan plastic) from somewhere that starts with a B or a W, I
forget which.

13.
And a glue gun.

14.
And very strong cuticles.

Are
we ready to begin? Good!

1.Cut
all the pipecleaners into pieces 3/4"-1" long, except for
one piece. Stick a piece of pipecleaner into the styrofoam so that
about 1/2" of it is sticking up. Stick one next to it, and other
next to it. Repeat until the styrofoam ball is covered like a forest
in pipecleaners, except leave spots for the eyes and mouth and
bladder to go. The bladder is where the eyes are, except on the
opposite side of the head.

2.Now
that you've done that, take a fourteen inch piece of wire, and bend
it in half so that there is an inch in between the sides. Take
tissues (2-4, it depends on the ply) and stuff them between the sides
of the wire. Secure with tape. Do this twice. Now, cut off a piece of
the plastic bag and pull it tightly over the whole wire-tissue
contraption. Tape it on the backside, tightly. If there are wrinkles
in the skin when you face it right side towards you, bend it just a
little, creating something reminiscent of a bent knee, to pull it
smooth. Cover both legs, and at the wider end (where the bend in the
wire is) color the bottom 3/4"s black with the permanent marker.
Somehow, secure the leg to the styrofoam. While making it, I put in
an extra piece of thin wire about three inches and left it hanging,
made a whole with it, then glue gunned it in there.

3.Make
arms the same way, but thinner, and using only 10" of wire for
each arm, so they should come out to be about 5" long. Now,
using the clay, form hands out of a ball 3/4" thick for each
hand. Shape a thumb and two fingers. Right now, you might want to
form a tongue too out of the green clay. Make it 1 1/2" inches
long and about 1/4" thick. Bake these until hard, and glue-gun
the hands to the end of the arms. Now attach them using the same
method you used to form the legs.

4.Whoops,
I forgot the ears! Use the extra piece of pipe-cleaner. Cut a piece
about 3 inches thick, shape it like a triangle with one side missing,
and stick it in the head 2 inches back from where the eye-space is.
Repeat with the other ear.

5.Now,
cut a piece of paper in the shape of an eye. If your creature is a
girl, make the eyes brown. If it is a boy, color them light blue.
Glue gun them in the appointed spaces.

6.Now,
cut the mouth! It should have a big smile to creep you out. The lips
are green, and lightly shade the inside of the mouth purple. When you
have colored it, take the scissors or some sharp object (you might
need parent supervision) and after placing the cut-out mouth in it's
space, make a slit where you want the tongue to come out of, that
goes into the styrofoam. Take the mouth away and deepen the slot.
Practice sticking the tongue in it. Now glue-gun on the paper mouth,
and put some glue on the end of the tongue. Stick it into the slot.

7.For
the bladder, make a little hole. You're done.

8.Yay,
now you have your creature! I hope your desk didn't get too
scratched up (don't attempt this on wooden surface). Or your nails
and arms. Because mine did.

9.Since
it won't stand upright by itself, you may have to build a
stand. This is hard to accomplish with wire. After you're done, you
may want to (like I did) make a bracelet that says, "Careful! My
stand isn't attached to me!" on a little piece of paper.

FAQ:

Question:
You forgot the nose!Answer:
That's not a question! But, it's because the creature is not a
predator, or a prey, since they are photosynthetic but very strong.
They didn't develop a nose because they didn't need to be warned
about anything or sniff out food.

Question:
Why does my grapefruit look so limp?Answer:
You may want to bend it's arms in creative shapes or make a stand to
hold it up.

Question:
I'm mortally wounded because of the pipe-cleaners. What should I do?Answer:
I don't know. I only got scratched a lot.